Monday, July 23, 2018

This recipe is for the most delicious, tastiest novel this decade.You will certainly have all your dinner
guests licking their lips, salivating and begging for more.Of course, you do need to know who you are
cooking up this delightful concoction for.If it’s only for friends and family then you can play around with the
ingredients to your heart’s content, experiment a little, go into the dark side
and wallow in there for a while.But if
it is for many guests you haven’t met yet, then you probably need to stick to
the recipe a little more.Don’t deviate
too much, otherwise the flavor might change and the aroma might be too pungent
which might make your guests make a dash for the door.The tastiest novel is not so much about the
style or the perfect use of metaphor or beautiful descriptions of the way the
clock ticks slowly, but about the story.And what makes a good story?Why,
the plot and the characters of course.

Ingredients (This is what
you need to shove into that chipped glass mixing bowl of yours!)

A huge dilemma/crisis/problem/conflict, the bigger the better.Not too convoluted, or the
dinner guest might lose interest if the twists and turns require too much
concentration and your guest gets bored and leaves before the main course is
served.The dilemma has to be real
enough to grab the guest so that they can connect with it, and not too far-out
there that they can’t identify with it at all so that they lose interest.You’ll have to taste little bits every now
and then to ensure you have just the right amount.This is the tricky bit.The plot has to unravel sequentially.Remember, your dinner guest is there to eat
up your novel, not develop a stress migraine.You should stick to the basic format of a beginning, a middle and an
end.

A good setting.If you think of anyone from a book or your
life, they’re always in a context.They
always come with a setting, a certain place and time, plus a whole lot of
baggage clustered around them.Any
character in your novel must have some sort of a backdrop.This makes them more believable.Rather than relying on interior monologues
and streams of consciousness which could alter the flavor of your dish
considerably, and slow it down somewhat, it’s often more effective simply to
subtly slip in a telling detail about a the place where the character’s hanging
around, and show how they interact with their environment.

A few sub-plots is a tasty way to
spice up the novel,build up intrigue
and make your dinner guest cry out in ecstasy or horror.Either way, you want to get a reaction from
them.You want them to feel it, that
cornucopia of taste sensations.Like
little interactions and conflicts between some of your other characters, their
interactions with the protagonist.This helps
make it all the more real.Nobody has a
week without any kind of conflict at all, however minor.Life is all about solving conflicts.

Next you need to add a point of view to maneuver your guest into the world you have created.Your guests are handing over all their
sensory faculties to you.You have
absolute control of them, and everything they experience is governed by what
you choose to show or tell them.And to
do this well, you have to decide whether you are going to use a first person,
second person, third person, or multiple persons.Whichever point of view you decide with, you
need to stick with.Swapping viewpoints
is like hopping from red, to white,to
sweet wine, to dry, in one meal.You
risk losing your guest, making them so inebriated that they no longer know if
they are Arthur or Martha.

A few great characters and a mouth-watering protagonist.Without characters, there can
be no novel, no matter how great the plot.The best protagonist is someone we can identify with for the duration of
the meal.What makes a character
interesting is not how the world impacts on them, but how they impact on the
world.This is how the character
develops.Only describing things that
happen to your characters make them one-dimensional.Making your characters do and say things in
an engaging way, giving them reasons, motivations and conflicts is what makes
them three-dimensional and more believable.You want your dinner guests to talk about your characters at other
dinner parties, and for this to happen they need to connect to them.

Seasonings, add at your discretion, but do add some otherwise your recipe might
turn out bland and leave your guests with no taste in their mouths.Some spice is always good, a little bit of
sex to get the guests’ hormones going, action to give them a bit of an
adrenalin rush; it tends to make the meat more tender and easier to chew
on.Salt and pepper are always
essential, as is good realistic dialogue and descriptions.A dash of herbs will add some color, maybe even
add a slightly eccentric character with strange foibles.A bit of chili which could be suspense, humor
or both, will give the wow factor.

Method of preparation (Knowing the order in
which you mix the ingredients)

Prepare your work space where you’ll mix your ingredients.First come up with the problem, the
dilemma.Then add in the setting.Come up with some interesting characters.Write some character sketches first. It’s
important to know how they will think and act in different situations.It is only when you know how your character
is expected to act, that you can introduce the element of surprise which
definitely adds to the flavor of this recipe.Once you have your characters, add in the sub-plots and mix.Introduce the point of view and leave your
concoction to stand for a while.

Transfer your concoction to a big black cauldron, and put it onto a slow
heat.Stir carefully while cooking the
ingredients, and slowly add in the seasoning, stirring after each type of
seasoning is added.Stay vigilant and
engaged, watching carefully that the liquid doesn’t evaporate so that your
concoction is dried out and gets caught and burned out on the bottom.Do not let yourself get distracted from the
novel you are cooking up. Stay away from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram when
in the kitchen.

Garnish and serve creatively on your best plates.The presentation is important, so check the
spellings, grammar and punctuation, Edit, revise and edit again.Your dinner guests will be back for more if
you have taken care of their needs, which is flavor and presentation.You want them to leave satisfied, so that
they tell other potential guests about the wonderful meal they had with you.

About the Author

Cindy Vine was born in South
Africa and has lived and worked in many
different countries as a teacher.Cindy
is currently living and working in Norway.
She has three adult children who have all inherited her love of traveling and
who all live in different countries.Cindy likes to write about the difficult subjects that make you
think.Besides writing and traveling,
Cindy loves cooking and fixing up houses.

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

“We
could be anybody and everybody. A group of high school stereotypes with one
thing in common. Every one of us has a story.”

Every high school has the
bullies, the freaks, and the weird kids that make you feel uneasy. Rourke
High has more than their fair share. A few months before the end of their
senior year, a group of seemingly mismatched kids get together to form The
Freedom Club, hoping that they can support the victims of bullying, before they
graduate. As they uncover secrets and lies they plot revenge - and
discover love, friendship and truths about themselves, building up to a
shocking climax that will leave you reeling.

ThePrivilege, Honor and Blessing of Writing the
Book Entitled: Prayer, Marriage and the Leadership Roles of the Husband and
Wife

We(Bishop Ken and Pastor
Sheila Giles) consider ourselves fortunate to know the Lord and be familiar
with His ways(word and will) in our own lives, and in a tremendous sense, to be
able to share the Lord and His word with others. Our book, Prayer, Marriage
and the Leadership Roles of the Husband and Wife,gives us the
privilege of lightening the load and burden of others, and helping them
alleviate and eliminate unnecessary problems, and the pain and suffering they
bring in life, marriage and family. In fact, we have been and are able to
extend the wisdom of God's word to usher in and sustain peace, prosperity and
blessing in lives, marriages and families through our book and speaking
engagements.

Fundamentally, the wisdom
shared through our book and speaking engagements come from the revelation of
God's word, and is fueled by the burden passion derived from personal
deliverance and victory, and a desire to see the lives, marriages and families
of others blessed.

In a portion of our book introduction,
the following excerpt is communicated:

The above book excerpt
establishes the Lord's foundation and framework marriage and family and reveals
His desire to bless those who give heed to His word, will and way. Also, this
is premise through which our book relays the details of God's word and the
promises and blessings that are attached.

Our prayer is that many will
hear and apply the biblical truths and principles shared in our book to their
lives, in order that marriages and families are blessed; and, as the
foundational institutions of human society, cause the blessedness of nations and
our world, in the name of Jesus the Christ, amen.

About the Author

Bishop
Ken Giles began full-time ministry in 1993 as an inner-city Missions Leader in Dallas, Texas, while at Oak Cliff
Bible Fellowship under Dr. Tony Evans. He later served there as Assistant
Executive Director of their nonprofit corporation. In 1998, he returned to his
hometown of Beaumont, Texas, and served as Pastor
of Outreach at Cathedral of Faith Baptist Church and Executive Director of
their nonprofit corporation. In 2000, LincolnBibleChurch was planted in the
Beaumont/Port Arthur area and is now located in the Greater Houston Texas area
where Bishop Ken Giles and his wife, Pastor Sheila Giles provide servant
leadership. Bishop Giles has a Master of Education Administration from PrairieViewA&MUniversity and a Master of
Theology from Southeast Texas Theological Seminary.

Marriage is an institution established by God. God ordains a
man and a woman to be husband and wife to fulfill his purpose of expanding His
likeness and kingdom through their rule and dominion over His creation. Within
the institution of marriage, the man is responsible for carrying out and
communicating God’s vision.The woman
enables, strengthens and encourages her husband to carry out God's vision for
himself, the marriage and family. The husband and wife become one flesh. No
other human relationship, including that of parents and children, is to have
priority or greater importance than that of the husband and wife to one
another. The Leadership roles of the husband and wife are paramount to God's
plan of blessings in the marriage, family, generations and broader society.
Therefore, obedience to God and His word establishes God's order and
facilitates the proper working and functioning of the marriage and family.
Thus, establishing the peace, joy and increase the Lord has purposed in and
through the marriage and family.

Inside the Book

He believes he can’t be saved—she’ll prove him wrong!
Former SEAL Gavin Savitt always knew who he was—until his last
deployment ended tragically. Now he’s home, his mind hijacked by trauma
and the shadow of his once-perfect sight. Yet in this new hazy, unclear
world, one person stands out—Mavis Bracken.
There are a million reasons why Gavin shouldn’t be with Mavis,
including that she’s his best friend’s little sister. Yet he longs for
her touch, her freckles and her special way with wild, skittish beasts
like him. He just needs the courage to take his life back. And Mavis
won’t let him give up without a fight.

Thursday, July 12, 2018

“Judge Blair modified the
contempt penalty imposed on Louise to time already served. Detective John
Reeves, eager to inform her that she was free, was surprised when she insisted
on serving the entire seven-day sentence. He hesitantly asked if she would mind
him calling on her, once matters settled, but she did not respond. He
reproached himself for such an untimely and selfish intrusion, and vowed to
never again disturb her, to spend his time instead searching for the man with
the dent in his forehead.”

John Allen was born in Long Beach, CA. An engineer “by education, training,
and experience,” he describes himself as “a recovering engineer.”He left engineering to become the junior
partner in Allen & Allen Semiotics Inc., a corporation that his wife, Lynn,
launched for their diversified home business. Their projects include designing
databases for mid-sized companies. John Allen holds a BS from the United States
Air Force Academy, an MS from the University of Southern California, and an MA
from the University of California, Riverside.

Book Description:

Author John Allen has a theory
about the creator of Sherlock Holmes:

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not
create Holmes. It was Doyle’s wife, Louise Hawkins Conan Doyle, who gave birth
to the beloved sleuth.

Allen has put his beliefs to the
test, writing and publishing the first of a projected 12-novel series of Holmes
mysteries titled BRIMSTONE. His
detective is Louise Hawkins Conan Doyle, and Allen names her as the author of
the tale he presents, set in 1879 Bristol, England.

In a previous book, SHADOW WOMAN, Allen set out to prove
that Louise was the true creator of Sherlock Holmes. The inspiration for his
startling and controversial theory of authorship was a 1980s essay by Martin
Gardner called “The Irrelevance of Arthur Conan Doyle.” Gardner claimed that
Arthur was “too gullible and to easily duped to have created Sherlock Holmes.”

Allen determined that Gardner was
correct, but Gardner identified no alternative author. Allen continues, “So I
decided to give it a try. I came to suspect Louise as the actual author, but I
lacked the knowledge and tools to make a solid case.”

Then the Internet came along,
giving Allen a valuable research tool. He became convinced that Louise did in
fact create Sherlock Holmes. Allen presented his case in SHADOW WOMAN, which was published in 2017. To further advance
Louise as Holmes’s creator, to give her the credit he believes she is due, he
is now featuring her in a series of mystery novels, the first of which is BRIMSTONE.

As if Allen hadn’t set the bar
too high already, he has added a subtext to BRIMSTONE
that explores contemporary wrongful convictions through his Victorian
thrillers.

BRIMSTONE brims with appeal to multiple audiences, from lovers
of detective stories to those interested in justice for the wrongfully
convicted. Sherlock Holmes would be proud.

Interview:

What’s inside the mind of
a mystery author?

Front and center in my
thoughts, of course, is telling a compelling story. In that regard, I suspect
I'm no different than my colleagues. Beyond that, however, I suspect my
thoughts are unique in substantial fashion.

I'm fairly confident that I'm
the only author writing a mystery series that features the woman who actually
created Sherlock Holmes, presenting to the public in Brimstone even before she met the man who would take credit for her
groundbreaking mystery writing. And I'm equally confident that none of my
colleagues are basing Victorian mysteries on actual wrongful convictions from
today's America.

My thoughts, therefore, are
frequently upon how Louise Conan Doyle might have investigated the wrongful
convictions that I have investigated. Alternatively, my thoughts are on how I
might have investigated my cases had I been a woman in Victoria England. Either
way, the thoughts can literally cause me to lose sleep.

What is so great about
being an author?

I've written five
non-fictional books, four on wrongful convictions and one on Louise's
authorship of Sherlock Holmes. (That last book, by the way, is called Shadow Woman: The True Creator of Sherlock
Holmes, and it is available on Amazon.) Brimstone
is my first work of non-fiction, and the first book of twelve planned for the
Louise Conan Doyle Mystery Series. Each book in the series combines my insight
into the Holmes authorship issue with my insight into the sordid world of
wrongful convictions.

I find that I prefer writing
fiction, particularly when the story takes control of me, rather than vice
versa. Those are the magical times when my writing is at its best, when even I
am surprised to read what I'm writing, when the characters use my fingers to
convert their thoughts and dreams to pixels on my screen. That is just one
great aspect about being an author.

When do you hate it?

As I just noted, I frequently
find writing non-fiction to be a slog. The writing becomes something that I
need to do rather than something I want to do. That's when I most dislike
writing.

What is a regular writing
day like for you?

On an idealized day, my
fingers are on the keyboard by 8, and they are busy writing of Louise solving
mysteries in Victorian England until noon. During lunch, I'll research or watch
a documentary, except on Wednesdays, which is date day with Lynn, my wife of 22
years. After lunch, I research and write to free innocent people, most of that
writing never being made public. Lynn and I spend the evenings together, giving
each other our attention. Approaching midnight, my thoughts are back to my
writing. I fall asleep with plot twist or legal theories rattling around in my
head, and I sometimes wake up with encouraging new thoughts.

That's an idealized day. Real
life, though, manages to intrude so frequently and in such unexpected fashion
that no day is typical.

How do you handle negative
reviews?

Since I spent many years
arguing, on my Skeptical Juror blog, that specific convicted murderers are
actually innocent, it should come as no surprise that I have been subjected to
harsh criticism. I know that my work is controversial and disruptive, and I
know that it will engender negative reviews and comments. The more unhinged the
comment or review, the easier it is to laugh it off. The more thoughtful and
insightful the review, the more likely it is to cause me to think about my
work, to try harder to get things right.

How do you handle positive
reviews?

Being human, I much prefer
the positive reviews to the negative. After the initial flush of satisfaction,
which may last longer than I'd like to admit, I get back to work.

What is the usual response
when you tell a new acquaintance that you’re an author?

I find that the new
acquaintance is not as impressed as one might hope, more honestly as I might
hope. Even if provided a copy of an impressive non-fictional book, any
excitement seems feigned. However, having recently published my first fictional
work, people seem sincerely excited about Brimstone,
and seem sincerely thrilled if handed a print copy.

The difference in behavior is
discernable and remarkable. I guess it's not surprising that people, in
general, prefer a diversion from reality rather that another harsh glare of it.

What do you do on those
days you don’t feel like writing? Do you force it or take a break?

I have a hypothesis that
writers don't actually like to write. They like everything else that goes with
being a writer: the prestige, the allure, the interview as they sit in a
wingback chair, smoking a pipe, an impressive library at their back, an Irish
Setter at their feet. The sole evidence for my hypothesis is that nearly every
writer has some scheme to force herself or himself to write. Nearly every one
of them has some thought on how to, using an indelicate term of art, get ass in
seat. For me, I find it best to have a scheduled time for AIS. That's the
hardest part. By my first carriage return, I'm in the groove.

It's rare when I don't want
to dive into my Louise writing. It's much more common that circumstances
prevent me from doing so.

Any writing quirks?

I like to have a nice cool
glass of diet Mt. Dew, on the rocks, at the ready, on my left hand side, in the
same beat up, battered, plastic glass I've so long used. Does that count as a
quirk?

What would you do if
people around you didn’t take your writing seriously or see it as a hobby?

Since I believe in what I'm
trying to accomplish, to bring long overdue credit to Louise Conan Doyle and
free innocent people from prison, I would continue to write with the hope and
expectation that some day my work will take hold.

Some authors seem to have
a love-hate relationship to writing. Can you relate?

Yes, assuming love-hate is
used in the metaphorical rather than literal sense. I much prefer fiction to
non-fiction. With respect to my non-fiction writing, I like that I'm trying to
set right a terrible wrong, but I dislike the circumstances that force me to
write of such matters. With respect to Louise Conan Doyle, it is more of a
love-love relationship, in the metaphorical sense. I have become quite fond of
her. I hold her in exceptionally high regard for her achievements and her
character, and I am feel honored to bring her to the public consciousness.

Do you think success as an
author must be linked to money?

If, through my writing, I can
stop the execution of an innocent person, or free an innocent person from
prison, or keep an innocent person from being convicted, then I am successful,
even if no one in the general public has read a single word I've written, even
if I've not earned a penny.

With the Louise Conan Doyle
Mystery Series, on the other hand, I have recruited Louise to help me bring attention
to a few of the wrongful convictions. For the two of us, Louise and I working
together, success means public attention, and that means sales, and that is
linked to money. The money would, of course, be wonderful, but it is far from
the end all.

What has writing taught
you?

Everyone is capable of both
wonderful and horrible acts.

Leave us with some words
of wisdom.

Each of us should carefully consider the possibility
that we might be wrong.